Why we ride!

January 9, 2011. Winter in Northern California. The coast, as they say, is clear! Quite a contrast from the fog-bound Peninsula on the Bay side.

Wow. You hope this is how it’s going to be, after climbing Old LaHonda in the fog & cold, but you’ve prepared yourself mentally for a long cold ride with little to see that isn’t gray.

The temperature when we left the house was 41, dropping down to 37 as we neared Woodside, then “warmed up” to 41 again around the middle of Old LaHonda before dropping down to 33 in the forested section of Old LaHonda on the west side of Skyline, still in the fog. But as soon as we cleared the trees, my goodness, what an incredible view of the coast! The fog was gone, the sun was warming things up, and it just got steadily nicer as Kevin and I headed out towards San Gregorio.

33 degrees but we're ready for it!

Normally we’d start our ride so late that we miss most of those heading out that way; this morning we were probably too early. It was Becky’s (Kevin’s sister) birthday so we had to be back before 1pm, which meant leaving the house just past 8am. I suspect most tried to wait out the cold & fog a bit, a tactic that may have worked out for them although it never did get very warm today.

The long run out to San Gregorio was slightly-nicer than normal because the usual headwind had been replaced by a very mild offshore flow, allowing us to make pretty good time. I kept Kevin on my rear wheel; it’s going to take a bit to get him back up to full speed, but he’s coming along. At San Gregorio we rearranged our clothing a bit to take advantage of the felt-almost-balmy 53 degrees at the coast and were surprised by a nearly-empty store with not one person at the bar, “curing” their hangover with a Bloody Mary (something we’ve witnessed many times, even at 10am). No refueling required though; this wasn’t that long a ride (47 miles) and we had Cytomax and Clif Shots. Can’t miss with that combo!

Map showing extra Los Lobitos loop (adds 2.7 miles and some climbs)

Instead of the usual straight run up Tunitas, we added Los Lobitos to spice things up a bit (this adds 2.7 additional miles and a pretty steep but not-too-long climb). Kevin claims to not enjoy the bottom section of Tunitas, calling it “boring” until you hit the climb, so adding the Los Lobitos detour cures that “problem” very nicely. As expected, Kevin was riding more-strongly as we went on, until about 3/4 of the way up Tunitas when he told me he thought his knees were going to break in half soon. Of course, they didn’t, and of course, I knew exactly how much to allow him to ease off, and for how long, before gradually picking things up again so that he finished strongly at the top. Also, as usual, it got progressively-colder as we climbed, which isn’t an issue until the cold run down Kings Mtn into Woodside, which we’d hoped would have warmed up to a bit more than 44 degrees, but at least the fog had cleared and quite a few more cyclists had taken to the road.

View Google Map of Ride Overall an excellent ride, unexpectedly-nice out on the coast, which, by now, we should begin to expect!